Further Reading and References

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Further Reading and References Introduction Friedrich Schleiermacher discusses his religious sensibility in On Religion: Speeches to Its Cultured Despisers. Paul Tillich presents his ontology in Volume I, Part II of his Systematic Theology. Accessible sermons are also available in collections. Nietzsche’s announcement of the death of God comes in The Gay Science, Book 3, 125, translated by Walter Kaufman and published by Vintage Books (1974). True Religion, by Graham Ward, published by Blackwell (2003), examines why the emergence of the scientific worldview is not the end of religion but the remaking of it. Karen Armstrong discusses the birth of American fundamentalism and figures like A. C. Dixon in The Battle for God: Fundamentalism in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, pub- lished by Harper Collins (2000), see page 178–9. T. H. Huxley’s essay ‘Agnosticism’ can be found in the misleadingly entitled Atheism: a Reader, edited by S. T. Joshi, published by Prometheus Books (2000), see page 33 for the quote. God’s Funeral, by A. N. Wilson, published by Abacus (1999), sets Victorian agnosticism in a wider historical context. Scholarly studies on Victorian agnosticism include: The Unbelievers: English Agnostic Thought, by A. O. J. Cockshutt (Collins: 1964) – a good survey of players. The Origins of Agnosticism: Victorian Unbelief and the Limits of Knowledge, by Bernard Lightman (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987) – good on agnosticism’s relation- ship to the philosophy of Kant and why Victorian agnosticism as a movement died. Søren Kierekegaard’s Fear and Trembling is a Penguin Classic, translated by Alastair Hannay (1985): see page 62 for the quote. All the quotes from Plato are taken from Plato Complete Works, edited by John M. Cooper, published by Hackett Publishing Company (1997). The quote from the Phaedrus is at 278d. 1. Socrates’ Quest: The Beginning of Wisdom Greek Religion, by Walter Burkert, translated by John Raffan, published by Blackwell (1985), is the standard text on the eponymous subject. The Religion of Socrates, by Mark L. McPherran, published by Penn State University Press (1996), is the most thorough examination of the historical Socrates’ attitude and feelings about religion and belief that I have seen. The quote from the Laws is at 948c. 190 Further Reading and References Xenophon’s Socratic ‘proof’ for the existence of gods is in his Memoirs of Socrates 1.4. The account of Socrates’ response to the oracle begins at Apology 20e. Plutarch’s account of Socrates’ peripatetic method is in Whether a Man Should Engage in Politics when He Is Old, 26, 796d. The discussion about gods and goodness (or piety) begins around Euthyphro 9c. Diotima’s contribution in the Symposium begins at 201d. Alcibiades appears at 212d. The interview with Bertrand Russell is reprinted in Russell on Religion: Selections from the Writings of Bertrand Russell, published by Routledge (1999), Chapter 4, ‘What Is an Agnostic?’. The Road to Delphi: the Life and Afterlife of Oracles, by Michael Wood, published by Picador (2003), is a fascinating and evocative study of the role of ancient oracles. 2. Cosmologists and Darwinists: the Limits of Science Newton: the Making of Genius, by Patricia Fara is published by Picador (2003). The Philosophy of Science: a Very Short Introduction, by Samir Okasha, published by Oxford University Press (2002), does what it says on the cover. Thomas Kuhn’s revolutionary ideas are in his 1963 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (University of Chicago Press). Karl Popper’s revolutionary ideas are in his 1959 book The Logic of Scientific Discovery (Hutchinson). A very useful summary of issues in the philosophy of science comes from a discussion Brian Magee had with Hilary Putnam, reproduced in Talking Philosophy, published by Oxford University Press (1978), Chapter 12, from which the Putnam quotes are taken. Kuhn vs Popper: the Struggle for the Soul of Science, by Steve Fuller is published by Icon (2003). The quote of Werner Heisenberg is from his Physics and Philosophy, published by Penguin Books (1989), on page 167. Our Final Century? Will the Human Race Survive the 21st Century?, by Martin Rees is pub- lished by Arrow (2004). Richard Dawkins’s essay ‘The Sacred and the Scientist’ is in Ben Rogers’s Is Nothing Sacred?, published by Routledge (2004), with the quote on page 137. The Story of God, by Robert Winston, is published by Bantam Press (2005). 3. Visions of Reality: Science and Wonder All that remains of the writings of the pre-Socratic philosophers are in Early Greek Philosophy, published by Penguin Classics (2001), with introductory material by Jonathan Barnes. Empedocles’ ‘Twofold Tale’ is on pages 120–2. Socrates tells of his change from natural science to philosophy beginning at Phaedo 96a. Happiness: Lessons from a New Science, by Richard Layard, is published by Allen Lane (2005). An example of the distinction between zob and bios is deployed by Aristotle in his Politics, see 1252b30. Susan Greenfield made her point about asking the right questions of neuroscience at an event entitled ‘Religion and Neuroscience’ at the Royal Institution in May 2005. Further Reading and References 191 Michael Atiyah deployed his metaphor of the Faustian pact in a lecture given in 2000 entitled ‘Mathematics in the Twentieth Century’. It has been reproduced in Mathematical Association of America Monthly, August–September 2001. Brian Ridley’s On Science is published by Routledge (2001), see pages 46 and 141 for the quotes. TechGnosis, by Erik Davis, published by Harmony Books (1998), has more on the importing of the religious imagination into science. The Essential Mary Midgley, edited by David Midgley, is published by Routledge (2005) and provides an excellent survey of her work. See ‘Salvation and the Academics’, pages 228–38, for her reflections on DNA. Dominique Janicaud’s On the Human Condition is published by Routledge (2002), see pages 54–8. ‘Life’, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, is in Selected Poetry, edited by Richard Holmes, pub- lished by Penguin Books (1996), page 8. Moby Dick, by Herman Melville, is a Penguin Classic (2003). The quotes are in Chapter 42, ‘The Whiteness of the Whale’, page 206. Longinus, ‘On Sublimity’, is in Classical Literary Criticism, published by Oxford University Press (1989), page 143. David Attenborough made his comments to the press when Life in the Undergrowth was launched. Thomas Traherne’s thoughts on flies and celestial strangers are in the excellent anthol- ogy Thomas Traherne Poetry and Prose, selected and introduced by Denise Inge, pub- lished by SPCK (2002), pages 111–14. Baron von Hügel’s comments are quoted in a review of his The Reality of God, and Religion and Agnosticism, in the Times Literary Supplement of Thursday, 18 June 1931. Roger Scruton discusses piety in An Intelligent Person’s Guide to Philosophy, published by Penguin Books (1996), see page 117. Einstein’s relevant writings and thoughts are all gathered at www.einsteinandreligion.com, including these quotes. Piers Benn’s essay ‘The Idea of the Sacred’ appears in Ben Rogers’s Is Nothing Sacred? (see above), quote on page 126. The Devout Sceptics interviews by Bel Mooney are collected in a Hodder and Stoughton book with the same title (2003): see page 57 for Paul Davies’s quote. 4. Bad Faith: Religion as Certainty Atheism: a Very Short Introduction, by Julian Baggini, is published by Oxford University Press (2003): see page 106 for the quote. In What’s It All About? Philosophy and the Meaning of Life, published by Granta (2004), he offers an atheist’s take on the ‘big questions’. Denys Turner’s lecture ‘How to Be an Atheist’ is in his collected talks Faith Seeking, pub- lished by SCM Press (2002). Philosophy: the Latest Answers to the Oldest Questions, by Nicholas Fearn, is published by Atlantic Books (2005). Herbert McCabe is quoted in The Thought of Thomas Aquinas, by Brian Davies, pub- lished by Clarendon Paperbacks (1993), page 111. Karen Armstrong discusses her ideas on logos and myth in The Battle for God (see above). A concise version is in A Short History of Myth, published by Canongate (2005): see page 122 for quote. Serious Concerns, by Wendy Cope, is published by Faber and Faber (1992). Disciplining the Divine: the Failure of the Social Model of the Trinity, by Paul Fletcher, is pub- lished by Ashgate (forthcoming). 192 Further Reading and References No God But God: the Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam, by Reza Alsan, is published William Heinemann (2005), see page 263 for quote. 5. Christian Agnosticism: Learned Ignorance The story about Thomas Aquinas is in Brian Davies’s The Thought of Thomas Aquinas (see above). De docta ignorantia, by Nicholas of Cusa, is available online. This quote comes in Chapter 1, ‘How it is that knowing is not-knowing’. The quote from Meister Eckhart is from his sermon XCIX, available in collected works. The Unknown God: Agnostic Essays, by Anthony Kenny, is published by Continuum (2004), with his reflections on Arthur Hugh Clough’s poem in Chapter 1, ‘The Ineffable Godhead’: see page 20 for the quote. Chapter 8 compares Clough and Arnold. T. H. Huxley’s reflections were in a review of Agnosticism published in the Times Literary Supplement of Friday, 27 February 1903. 6. Following Socrates: a Way of Life The discussion of Plato’s Academy in Chapter 4 of Plato: an Introduction, by Paul Friedländer, published by Princeton University Press (1973) and translated by Hans Meyerhoff is fairly old now but is hard to beat. The Seneca quote is from Moral Epistles 6, 6. The Plato quote from the Seventh Letter is at 341c. Pierre Hadot’s idea of philosophy as a way of life is developed in several books. An acces- sible text is What Is Ancient Philosophy?, published by Harvard University Press (2002).
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